Sharing music and listening to new music shared by friends are two favorite pastimes of mine. It’s part of why it was such an important part of our own wedding. In choosing it, we dedicated an entire night to inviting our closest friends over and getting their suggestions for the cocktail hour, for dancing, and for other various playlists.…

Sharing music and listening to new music shared by friends are two favorite pastimes of mine. It’s part of why it was such an important part of our own wedding. In choosing it, we dedicated an entire night to inviting our closest friends over and getting their suggestions for the cocktail hour, for dancing, and for other various playlists.

So last week when we asked all of you to give us your first dance songs, and you delivered in droves, I was basically in music heaven. We pored over your suggestions—I might have listened to every song (though maybe not because more are still coming in!), and pulled together a playlist of our favorites for you to enjoy.

1. “All You Need Is Love” by The Beatles2. “Love You Madly” by Cake3. “Grow Old with You” by Adam Sandler4. “XO” by Beyonce5. “I and Love and You” by The Avett Brothers6. “Faithfully” by Journey7. “By The Way They Dance” by Jump, Little Children8. “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love)” by Ella Fitzgerald9. “You Send Me” by Sam Cooke10. “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel11. “I Just Called to Say I Love You” by Stevie Wonder12. “The Best of Times” by Styx13. “True Love” by P!nk ft. Lily Allen14. “She Keeps Me Warm” by Mary Lambert15. “Only Love” by Ben Howard16. “Lucky” by Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat17. “Ho Hey” by The Lumineers

LOOKING FOR MORE OPTIONS FOR FIRST DANCE SONGS? BROWSE OUR PREVIOUS FIRST DANCE SONGS PLAYLISTS below!

1. “You Are the Best Thing” by Ray LaMontagne2. “That’s How Strong My Love Is” by Otis Redding3. “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds4. “Sea of Love” by Cat Power5. “Can’t Help Falling in Love” as covered by Ingrid Michaelson6. “Life is Beautiful” by Keb’ Mo’7. “Stuck on You” by Meiko8. “The Book of Love” by The Magnetic Fields9. “This Will Be Our Year” by The Zombies10. “The Promise” by Tracy Chapman11. “Tupelo Honey” by Van Morrison12. “Stay Young, Go Dancing” by Death Cab for Cutie

1. “When I’m Sixty-Four” by The Beatles2. “You Are The Sunshine of My Life” by Stevie Wonder3. “Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show4. “Excuses” by the Morning Benders5. “Hallelujah (I Just Love Her So)” by Ray Charles6. “Gold Digger” by Kanye West7. “I Got You (I Feel Good)” by James Brown8. “Think I’m In Love” by Beck9. “I Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” as covered by Lauryn Hill10. “Let’s Get it On” by Marvin Gaye11. “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green12. “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone13. “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” by Nat King Cole14. “How Does It Feel” by Slade15. “Nothing Can Change This Love” by Sam Cooke

1. “Crazy Love” by Van Morrison2. “I’ll Follow You Into The Dark” by Death Cab for Cutie3. “Feels Like Home” by Chantal Kreviazuk4. “Forever” by Ben Harper5. “Heavenly Day” by Patty Griffin6. “Blackbird” by The Beatles7. “In My Life” by The Beatles8. “Open Arms” by Journey9. “Hold On” by Michael Bublé10. “La Vie En Rose” by Louis Armstrong11. “That’s All” by Nat King Cole12. “I’m Glad There Is You” by Ella Fitzgerald13. “Can’t Help Falling In Love” by Elvis14. “Come Away With Me” by Nora Jones15. “Into The Mystic” by Van Morrison16. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”* by The Beach Boys

When we started planning our wedding, one of the first decisions my husband and I made was to handle the music ourselves via our trusty iPods. Music is integral to both of our identities, something we’ve always shared—we were writing, exchanging mixes, and going to concerts together long before we realized we were something more than friends—and we wanted to extend that to our wedding. …

When we started planning our wedding, one of the first decisions my husband and I made was to handle the music ourselves via our trusty iPods. Music is integral to both of our identities, something we’ve always shared—we were writing, exchanging mixes, and going to concerts together long before we realized we were something more than friends—and we wanted to extend that to our wedding. The key word that we both seized on when describing the music for this important night was “personal”; the unspoken expectation was that the right combination of the right songs, through some kind of alchemy of sentiment and aesthetic, would converge into a perfect expression of ourselves and our relationship, infusing each moment with meaning, like the best movie soundtrack of all time.

We assumed that the playlist project would be one of “the fun parts” of wedding planning, something we could do to relax in between all the horrible, stressful bits we’d been told to expect. As it turned out, our strong feelings about music made the whole process surprisingly fraught—in fact, the playlist was the only aspect of wedding planning that actually ended up causing stress and friction for us. As much as we thought it should all have come together easily, magically, we kept finding ourselves baffled by each other’s choices and increasingly defensive about our own.

What helped, finally, was sitting down and actually talking through what we were trying to accomplish. We realized that we had been approaching this project with two very different definitions of what “personal” meant to us: I was racking my brains for songs with lyrics that best represented my hopes for how our wedding and our marriage would feel, while he was focused on songs he associated with memories of moments in our history. With this context, we were able to understand each other’s choices and agree on a few strategies that would work for us both.

Start early. For all but the most decisive (or most laid-back—if you put your playlist on Shuffle and called it a day, please teach me your ways!), it will be incredibly difficult to narrow down your choices and get them into an order that flows the way you want it to. One of our overarching principles for wedding planning in general was that we didn’t want to be doing anything in the last few weeks unless it absolutely couldn’t be done beforehand. Starting the playlist four or five months out was about right for us—it let us tinker with it sporadically, coming back with fresh ears after leaving it alone for a while, and gave us the space to scrap and start over without worrying that we would be up at 3am the night before our wedding arguing over how many slow songs is too many.

Start with what you know. We agreed immediately on a few songs that we couldn’t imagine not including. There was only one possible first dance for us, and we also knew very early on what song we wanted playing as we walked back up the aisle. Having these and various other must-haves picked out gave us a skeleton to build on; we could plan out where these songs would fall and think of what should lead into and follow them. Filling in the gaps felt a lot less daunting than “Five hours of music, GO!”

Start with your existing music collection. In my determination to find All The Perfect Songs, I had initially spent most of my time googling recommendations, thinking that I could just cull the best of the best. Simple! Except, the best is a lot more subjective than I wanted it to be. I kept catching myself wrinkling my nose partway through every “mood-setting dinner music” or “romantic slow dances” list. We ended up just scrolling through our iTunes, pulling every song that appealed to us. We reasoned that, although we obviously don’t own every song in the world—or even every good song in the world—the music we had already collected was what spoke to us the most.

Break it up. Although we continued to refer to The Playlist as a single unit, we were really working on several lists; realizing this freed us to approach each one with a different goal in mind. For us, this looked like:

Pre-ceremony: This was a short set of songs to play while guests entered and took their seats. We wanted this list to feel very “us,” and also to set the tone for the evening, so we filled it with favorites that weren’t necessarily familiar to our families but would sound simple and sweet.

The aisle: For logistical reasons covered excellently in previous articles, this song was a playlist on its own. We had a terrible time choosing it, but thankfully it didn’t really have to fit in seamlessly with the rest of the evening’s music since it’s so tied to the particular moment.

Cocktail hour: Our ceremony and reception were held in a single space, so the recessional led straight into cocktails and socializing. Taking the tone from our recessional (and from our expectations of how we’d be feeling at the time), we chose fast, upbeat, celebratory songs—ones that made us want to throw our hands in the air but wouldn’t quite work on the dance floor.

Dinner: All the milder stuff went here. We wanted a more relaxing feel while everyone ate and talked, and didn’t want the transition to our (slow) first dance song to feel jarring.

Dance party: This was definitely the hardest part. This playlist required some stretching of our “personal” principle because, as mentioned on APW before, one of the most effective ways to get people dancing is to play what they know, and I surprised myself by realizing partway along that I really, really wanted people to dance at my wedding.

Ask for suggestions, but don’t be afraid to ignore them. Like many couples, we did some crowdsourcing: we included a line on our RSVP cards that read, “I promise to dance if you play…” and fully intended to work in every request we received. These good intentions went out the window after “November Rain” and “Pop That” showed up in our mailbox. We ended up including quite a few songs that we might not have chosen ourselves, or found challenging to fit into a coherent whole, and it was so rewarding to see people exclaim “This is my song!” throughout the night as a result. But y’all, there is a line somewhere, and songs over eight minutes long or containing the immortal lyric “On my Proactiv shit, pop that pussy like a zit” were where we drew it for our wedding.

Don’t be afraid to break your own rules, either. We included my in-laws’ request, “Hey Jude,” in our dance playlist, and yep, it cleared the dance floor. But seeing them swaying blissfully, alone and completely oblivious to the world around them, is a memory we’ll both treasure forever.

Nobody cares about the playlist as much as you do. As important as music is to us, thinking back to the weddings we’ve been to over the years we remember very few of the specific songs that were played—even for iconic moments like first dances. The songs that do stick in our minds don’t tend to be the coolest, the most gushingly romantic, or even the ones we like the best; they’re the songs that were playing when we looked over and realized the bride’s dad had happy tears streaming down his face, or when the newlyweds started shouting along, bouncing in each other’s arms, murdering all the lyrics and laughing so hard. Choosing the playlist for your wedding can be an incredibly personal expression of self—of history, meaning, aesthetic—but in the end it’s really just background music. It’s the wedding that infuses the soundtrack with meaning, not the other way around.

Dance music: to DIY or not to DIY? To start with, let’s just get something clear. You do not have to have dancing at your wedding. Think about it—I’m sure that you’ve been to some awesome parties in your life that did not have any dancing.…

Dance music: to DIY or not to DIY? To start with, let’s just get something clear. You do not have to have dancing at your wedding. Think about it—I’m sure that you’ve been to some awesome parties in your life that did not have any dancing. A wedding reception is a party. It can be awesome without having dancing.

But you may want dancing! Awesome. There are really three ways to make this happen: self-DJ your wedding (or as it’s popularly known “iPod DJ”), hire a DJ, or hire a band. We’re not going to get into bands today, because they’re in a different ballpark from the other two (however, I will get into them at some point in the future, so if you have questions about live music please feel free to leave them in the comments). So for now, let’s talk about DIYing your music vs. hiring a professional DJ.

Pick One: DJ or iPod

My team and I see equal amounts of both self- and pro-DJed weddings, and what I generally tell our clients if they’re trying to decide between the two is:

If one of your top three priorities for your wedding is “completely killer dance party” then go out and get yourselves a really good DJ. Or if you want music, but don’t care to put the time or energy into it? DJ!

If you’d like people who want to dance to be able to, and you’d like to dance, but it’s not one of your top priorities? Or if you have VERY strong opinions about music? Start building your playlist.

Obviously there are exceptions. If you have a solid understanding of what you like to dance to, and plan to be shaking your ass (hard) all night long, you’ll be fine if you can’t afford a DJ (Meg’s wedding is a great example of this). However, for the non dance machines among us, DJs can really help make the dance party happen.

DJs have one giant advantage over iPods, which is that they have a huge selection of music at their fingertips and can adjust to the mood of the crowd immediately. A good DJ’s job is to read the crowd and keep them dancing—they have experience doing exactly this, and are able to switch gears seamlessly when it turns out your crowd is more Katy Perry than Rolling Stones (or vice versa). They can also troubleshoot technical issues seamlessly and adjust volume levels between speakers, music, and microphones (for ceremony, toasts, etc.) easily. They can also give you tips on dance floor set up, volume for different phases of the night, and the music flow for a party. They’re there to make the party happen, and the best ones are very, very good at it.

You Picked DJ? How To Hire One

So, how do you hire a good DJ? My favorite “wedding DJs” are actually club DJs who do weddings on the side. They’re all about making people dance, and not so much about embarrassing/cheesy announcements and games. In fact, they’re often relieved when you tell them that the only announcement you’re going to want them to make is for last call at the bar. I have unfortunately seen more than my share of wedding DJs whose announcements make me both cringe and blush, and it takes a lot to make me blush, particularly when I’m not even the one in the center of the dance floor. A good DJ is going to want a “no play” list from the clients, along with a short “must play” list. Then they’ll base the rest of their selections off of what that tells them about your taste in music mixed with their own knowledge of what gets a crowd moving.

You Picked iPod? Let’s Build That Playlist

Now, maybe you have capital “O” Opinions about music. And when you find yourself thinking about a DJ, you find your anxiety rising at the idea that you won’t be able to choose your whole playlist. (Note: do not hire a DJ if you’re going to dictate the entire playlist and the order in which you want things played. It’s a waste of your money and their talent.) Or maybe you just don’t care enough about dancing to spend the money on a DJ. Or maybe there just isn’t money left in your budget to hire a DJ. No worries, and heyyyy playlist. Can you have a rocking dance party without a pro-DJ? For sure—I’ve seen it happen many, many times. We generally call this “iPoding” your wedding, because, let’s face it, iPod has become to MP3 player what escalator is to moving staircase. But any MP3 player, or better yet, laptop, will work. Meg has written about iPoding your wedding before, and you should go check out her tips about music choices and playlist building. Beyond that, there are a few logistical things to keep in mind when going this route:

Separate your playlists for each segment of the day. I generally suggest the following: pre-ceremony, processional, recessional, cocktail hour/dinner (you can separate these if you want, but generally they’re similar enough that they can be combined), first dance, and dance party. Separate playlists for ceremony songs in particular is important because it prevents your recessional accidentally starting right at the end of your processional.

Remove all non-wedding playlists from the device. This will make it extra easy for whoever’s job it is to hit “play” to find the right thing.

Have a backup, and maybe a second backup. Electronics sometimes fail. They sometimes run out of batteries. Power cords sometimes short out. Things sometimes have glasses of champagne spilled on them. Prepare for all of these—if you’re running your music on an iPod, have it backed up on an iPhone. Likewise with a laptop. I always suggest a minimum of two fully charged devices, and their power cords, to be safe. (Editor’s note: Don’t forget, our Emergency Dance Party playlist can be played from any device with streaming capabilities. Just in case!)

Some notes about Spotify and other online music-subscription services: In the last six months we’ve started to see a lot of clients who self-DJ use Spotify Premium and other subscription streaming services for their playlists. So far it’s worked pretty seamlessly, but there are a few things to be aware of if you’re planning to go this route:

I recommend buying an MP3 of any ceremony music tracks. Go ahead and pay the dollar for those songs to get real, solid versions that you know won’t space out or skip, and that you can really easily control the volume on. Also, if it’s important enough to be in your ceremony, you’ll probably want to own a copy that you can listen to in the future, no?

Pay for a “premium” membership and download your playlists into “offline” mode. Internet connections can be sketchy at many venues, and even if you’re tethering to your phone, do you really want to risk a data connection error midway through Michael Jackson? I didn’t think so.

Make sure to test your whole playlist in “offline” mode well before hand. At least with Spotify, some tracks won’t play in this mode (I assume it’s a licensing issue?) which is probably fine, but you don’t want to discover at 10pm the night before your wedding that, say, a third of your playlist won’t work.

Share your playlist with a friend or family member who also has a premium subscription, and have them download it to offline mode as well. Backups, backups, backups.

No matter what you choose to do, it’s important to keep in mind the number one rule of weddings: it will depend on your guests. If your guests are a group of people who love to dance? They’re going to dance, even if you weren’t planning on it. If you have a group on your hands who hates to dance? The best DJ or playlist in the world won’t change that. And, my number one pro-tip about getting people to dance at your wedding? Get out there yourselves. The best dance parties I’ve seen at weddings are the ones where the couple never left the floor.

Have I ever told you that I grew up in a home with literally thousands of classical records on vinyl? I did. We listened to classical music at home, and religious music at church, and to be honest, I didn’t know much about pop music till high school.…

Have I ever told you that I grew up in a home with literally thousands of classical records on vinyl? I did. We listened to classical music at home, and religious music at church, and to be honest, I didn’t know much about pop music till high school. And while I rarely listen to classical music these days, there are some places I just can’t stray from my roots: Christmas (gimmie some religious Medieval music!) and weddings (classical, classical, religious). Which is why I was in charge of APW Classical Wedding Music Playlist.

But when we started putting together this playlist full of ceremony music, APWers, as ever, changed my mind on a few things. This list is hip (with hints and whispers of tradition). Each of these songs makes me feel like I’m being welcomed to a wedding I very much want to be at. For those of you working on the (seemingly impossible) task of picking wedding music, may this inspire you.

And, as summer is winding to a close (what? already?) a huge thank you to Monogamy Wine, which has made these awesomely long, and informative crowd-sourced playlists possible all summer. I raise my glass of delightfully chilled white wine in their honor!

Instead of having a father-daughter dance at my wedding, I’m going to be having a grandmother-granddaughter dance. My parents got divorced when I was two years old and my mother gave custody of me to my grandparents when I was two.…

Instead of having a father-daughter dance at my wedding, I’m going to be having a grandmother-granddaughter dance. My parents got divorced when I was two years old and my mother gave custody of me to my grandparents when I was two. As a result I think of my grandparents as my parents. I even call my grandmother “Mom.” I also think of grandfather as having been my dad, unfortunately he passed away when I was nine. If my grandfather were still with us he would be the one giving me away, dancing with me at the reception, etc. My biological father and I are not especially close, and I’m not even sure if he’s invited to the wedding at this point. So my grandmother has agreed to dance with me in my grandfather’s honor. It makes total sense to me, but I’m afraid my guests will think it’s weird. How do I explain this to other people? I am also at total loss as to what song to pick, any suggestions?

–Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

This is the sort of situation where I get to remind you that weddings are about real life, and not about fitting some mandatory script. Sometimes there isn’t a small child to carry a pillow down the aisle. Sometimes you (shock!) don’t have an equal number of close male and female friends who are willing to stand up front in matching attire. Luckily, weddings are about honoring the real people in your real life, rather than trying to figure out how to squeeze loved ones into the pre-formed molds. You wanna honor grandmom? That’s awesome, and I think a special dance will be touching and sweet.

So, you’re on board with that. I’m on board with that. But what to do about those pesky wedding guests, right? For starters, the nameless wedding guest usually deserves more credit than we give him. Out of a wedding for 150 people, you might have two or three random relatives with stinky opinions and lacking tact. But that’s not such a bad statistic, is it? Most folks will go with the flow of whatever is happening at the wedding—especially if it’s endearing and involves little old ladies. I’d guess the majority of them will more likely think, “How sweet! A dance with grandmom!” rather than, “WAIT, WHAT ABOUT DAD?” Beyond that, as Rachel pointed out, your wedding guests are actual people, with faces and names and a history with you. Chances are, most of the ones you know well enough to invite to your wedding, probably know who raised you.

But we can be grateful for the few, the proud: the obtuse. Because of Great-Aunt Helen’s inability to recognize that it might not be appropriate to ask why you didn’t dance with your dad, you’re going to get a taste of random people having opinions about your decisions (solicited or not). Pessimistic as it sounds, get used to it now. There always will be someone who thinks your decisions are weird. So, what you get to do in response is determine what you’re comfortable sharing and when (which is a bit of a learning process).

At the end of the day, this decision impacts only you and your grandmom (and tangentially, mom and dad). Which means that what everyone else thinks doesn’t really matter. I’m serious, it doesn’t. If you can really embrace that idea, it’ll help you firm up your resolve about things being the way they are. If you stutter or upspeak or say it with uncertainty, you’re just giving an open invitation for Uncle Nosy to jump in and tell you exactly what he thinks, with some added harrumphing. Instead, with that conviction that what’s happening is happening for good reason, you can talk about it honestly and kindly (honest and kind! It’s like my ATP motto), and within the bounds of whatever you feel comfortable sharing. “Nana is really important to me and I want to honor her,” states the truth without sharing any of the nitty-gritty that might make you uncomfortable. It’s an art, speaking your mind in a way that both doesn’t give away more than you’d like, and doesn’t invite advice. It just takes practice.

Now to your last part—song ideas. I’m not so great with the music picking, but you know who is? Our readers. So, let’s hear it guys. What’s a good song for a sweet and meaningful dance with grandmom? And while we’re at it, what traditions did you tweak to fit your loved ones? Did you face friction over those changes?

*****

Editor’s Note: Pride week is next month, which means that in keeping with past years, Ask Team Practical will be handed over to one of our longtime LGBTQ readers to answer LGBTQ-specific questions about wedding planning, marriage, relationships, and anything else you can think of. We’re still fielding questions, so if you would like Team Practical’s advice, send them in right here.

If you would like to ask Team Practical a question please don’t be shy! You can email Liz at: askteampractical [at] apracticalwedding [dot] com. If you would prefer to not be named, anonymous questions are also accepted. Though it really makes our day when you come up with a clever sign-off!

We tried to create our playlist around multi-generational crowd pleasers that also weren’t your run-of-the-mill cliched wedding songs. The dance floor was full from start to finish, so we consider it a success. Some song highlights (and our full playlist available for download after the jump):

“You Never Can Tell” by Chuck Berry (This was our father/daughter dance. We learned the “Pulp Fiction” choreography for it.)

]]>http://apracticalwedding.com/2013/05/self-dj-wedding-playlist/feed/17Playlist: The Goodhttp://apracticalwedding.com/2013/04/playlist-the-good/
http://apracticalwedding.com/2013/04/playlist-the-good/#commentsTue, 30 Apr 2013 16:30:22 +0000http://apracticalwedding.com/?p=69485Sometimes when we’re pulling together content for APW, it doesn’t occur to us that we’ve been following a theme until after everything’s compiled and we can look at it holistically for the first time. Such is the case with our wordless weddings from The Good.…

Sometimes when we’re pulling together content for APW, it doesn’t occur to us that we’ve been following a theme until after everything’s compiled and we can look at it holistically for the first time. Such is the case with our wordless weddings from The Good. As we were putting together this playlist, it occurred to us that many of last month’s weddings were light on dancing and heavy on lots of other kinds of fun, like lawn games and cocktails.

The wedding industry has come so far in learning to accept that there are many, many ways to have a successful wedding without having to subscribe to the dominant cultural narrative about How Things Should Be Done. (No plated dinner? No problem. Alcohol-free? Cool.) And I think it’s really important to regularly showcase that you can have fun at a wedding with limited or no dancing (because some people just aren’t dancing people).

So today’s playlist is dedicated to the music lovers who prefer to listen rather than groove. And to honor this part of our community, we’re opening up the comments to your suggestions for best non-dancing music choices. So hit us up with your cocktail hour music, your dance-free suggestions, your board-game accompaniments, and any jams that makes for good background noise while the real activities are happening. In the meantime, enjoy the easy listening of April, a playlist which includes both The Muppets and Bruce Springsteen and therefore makes me want to hug all of you and tell you how much I like you.

** If you want to submit your own wedding playlist, or playlist highlights, head over to our submissions page and drop us a line with the following: your name and your partner’s name, three to five photos of your wedding, eight to twelve songs featured at your wedding (or your whole playlist, if you self-DJed and want to share) and what they were used for, one sentence sum up of your wedding’s vibe. **

One sentence sum up of your wedding’s vibe: Our wedding brought the closest of our friends and family together for an evening filled with friendship, love, and amazing Central Coast food, which was subsequently danced off.

One sentence sum up of your wedding’s vibe:Our wedding brought the closest of our friends and family together for an evening filled with friendship, love, and amazing Central Coast food, which was subsequently danced off.

Song For Ezekiel From Adina: “I Am The Greatest Man That Ever Lived” by Weezer

** If you want to submit your own wedding playlist, or playlist highlights, head over to our submissions page and drop us a line with the following: your name and your partner’s name, three to five photos of your wedding, eight to twelve songs featured at your wedding (or your whole playlist, if you self-DJ’d and want to share) and what they were used for, one sentence sum up of your wedding’s vibe. **

Maddie and I talk a lot about our generational divide. I can’t decide if it’s weird that we rather clearly have one, given that she’s twenty-six and I’m thirty-three, but it sometimes feels like a chasm (girlfriend was like six when Kurt Cobain died, WHAT?).…

Maddie and I talk a lot about our generational divide. I can’t decide if it’s weird that we rather clearly have one, given that she’s twenty-six and I’m thirty-three, but it sometimes feels like a chasm (girlfriend was like six when Kurt Cobain died, WHAT?). She sent me a link to the mini-documentary Dirty Girls that’s gone viral (watch it if you haven’t), so I could see “overly articulate teenagers talking about feminism, how strange!” So I watched it. To oddly no tension. It was filmed in 1996 in Southern California, and those girls were basically my social circle. Maddie’s mind, blown.

So it was hilarious that later the same day she posted highlights of her wedding playlist. My immediate text to her: “Generational divide in action.” I mean, Kelly Osbourne? God knows I love her on Fashion Police, but I’m not even sure I knew she put out an album. Turns out, much like Maddie’s wedding playlist, mine telegraphs where David and I grew up, and exactly how old we are. I find it fascinating that our playlists are so revealing. Here’s my question to you: What’s the song on your wedding playlist that gives away your history in one stroke? (Ours is probably House of Pain’s “Jump Around.”) If we get a good list, we’ll give you Playlist: Generations. Without further ado, my wedding dancefloor playlist in its entirety, less the personal first dance song kind of stuff. It starts with soulful classics (catering to the older generation, who we knew would definitely still be in attendance), turns into a throwdown dance party (note: I firmly believe that if you want people to dance, you need to play songs they know like the back of their hand) with ebbs and flows of energy, and then ends sweet. Every single part of it was designed to have people moving their ass on the dance floor in the middle of the afternoon (which they damn well did). I’ll add that one of the joys of self-DJing your wedding, is that we often listen to our playlist on our anniversary. Enjoy.

Meg & David’s Soul, Classics, & Hip-Hop Playlist

“Chapel of Love” by The Dixie Cups

“Twistin’ the Night Away” by Sam Cooke from Live At The Harlem Square Club

“Twist and Shout” by The Beatles

“What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong

“New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra

“Georgia on My Mind” Ray Charles

“Can’t Take my Eyes Off of You” by Frankie Valli, covered by Lauren Hill

“Let’s Get It Started (radio remix)” by Black Eyed Peas

“Independent Women Part I” by Destiny’s Child

“Proud Mary” by Tina Turner & Ike Turner (Important note: this song needs to be clipped. You only want to use the second half for a dance party)

“Jump Around” by House of Pain (Jump Around and 9 to 5 is only the best cross fade ever, listen to it in action here, thanks to The Flashdance)

“9 to 5” by Dolly Parton (for the purpose of doing the electric slide, which I don’t think you can have a dance party without)

“I Loves You, Porgy” by Nina Simone

“Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” by Stevie Wonder

“Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” by Michael Jackson

“ABC” by The Jackson 5

“Kiss” by Prince

“Hey Ya” by Outcast

“Medley: It’s All Right—For Sentimental Reasons” by Sam Cooke from Live At The Harlem Square Club

** If you want to submit your own wedding playlist, or playlist highlights, head over to our submissions page and drop us a line with the following: your name and your partner’s name, three to five photos of your wedding, eight to twelve songs featured at your wedding (or your whole playlist, if you self-DJed and want to share) and what they were used for, one sentence sum up of your wedding’s vibe. **

Over the past few months, we’ve loved getting to know the APW community better through your musical choices. Better yet, we love that this feature allows us to use the community’s great taste to build wedding playlists that rock and, more importantly, are useful.…

Over the past few months, we’ve loved getting to know the APW community better through your musical choices. Better yet, we love that this feature allows us to use the community’s great taste to build wedding playlists that rock and, more importantly, are useful.

But recently it occurred to us that something might be missing from the way we’re currently approaching music: actual wedding playlists. Because it’s one thing to have a huge list of first dance songs in front of you to choose from, but it’s another thing entirely when you can see how other couples have put together their wedding musically holistically over the course of the whole day.

So here’s how this goes. We want your wedding music. So if you loved your wedding playlist, then head over to our submissions page and drop us a line with the following:

Your Name and Your Partner’s Name

Three to five photos of your wedding

Eight to twelve songs featured at your wedding, and what they were used for

One sentence sum up of your wedding’s vibe

And voila. If your wedding music is chosen, it’ll show up in a post much like this one.

For the most part, these are going to be highlight posts, like this one. But, if you are one of those people who breathes music, or if you were just particularly pleased with your self-DJed reception, we want your playlists too (if you’re willing to share). So if you think this might be you, then you can also head over to our submissions page and send in all of the above, except you should include the whole set list. We won’t be able to create a playlist with all the songs you include, but we will be able to format your playlist so that others can download the set list and make it their own. Hurrah for sharing!

I for one am thrilled to listen to the results and to experience your weddings through a totally different medium. In the meantime, since this is a new feature, we thought we’d kick off the inaugural run with a staff playlist. So today, I hope you enjoy my relaxed, beachy wedding set to ukuleles and hair metal. For the three of you out there who love Styx, today is for you.